The present invention relates to alignment devices for vehicles, and more particularly to a device operable to align vehicle-mounted devices with the drive axis of the vehicle.
Various devices on a vehicle are designed to be aligned to the vehicle's drive axis (both pointing in the forward drive direction and the rearward drive direction) in order to effectively point them in the proper direction for optimum performance. Such devices can include, but are not limited to, cameras, radar sensors, lidar sensors, and headlights. Previously, a large and expensive machine, sometimes referred to as a “rolls machine,” present typically only at the vehicle assembly plant, was required to align these and other devices with the vehicle's drive axis. The machine lifts the vehicle on a set of powered rollers to allow the vehicle wheels to turn and to establish a natural drive path or drive axis while keeping the vehicle stationary. Once the drive axis has been determined, the devices are aligned to the drive axis at the assembly plant.
The known rolls machine is not typically available at dealerships and other service shops. Thus, optimum alignment of devices that need to be aligned to the vehicle's drive axis is a difficult task, often resulting in aligning the device to the vehicle's body axis, which due to tolerance stack-ups of vehicle components, can vary several degrees from the vehicle's drive axis. Such variation can cause a loss of performance and/or operation of these precision devices.